While the $10K No-Limit Hold‘em Main Event will always be the highlight of the World Series of Poker’s summer, the $50K Poker Players Championship is the mixed games Main Event, and is seen by some as even more prestigious than the WSOP’s marquee event.
The PPC requires not only elite knowledge and skill of nine different games to be successful, but that success must be had against the most densely talented field of the entire summer, with the world's best mixed-game players at virtually every table.
The 2026 edition gets underway on Sunday, so let’s get you set with a quick primer.
Recent champions:
- 2025: Michael Mizrachi – 107 entries / $1,331,322
- 2024: Daniel Negreanu – 89 entries / $1,178,703
- 2023: Brian Rast – 99 entries / $1,324,747
- 2022: Dan Cates – 112 entries / $1,449,103
- 2021: Dan Cates – 63 entries / $954,020
Last year, Michael ’The Grinder’ Mizrachi became the first player in the event’s history to win it four times in the first half of his historic double of winning the PPC and the WSOP Main Event. It's a feat that may never again be repeated and earned him instant induction to the Poker Hall of Fame.
The modern era of the PPC, in its current nine-game format, has seen nothing but notable champions, as before Mizrachi, Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu finally won the tournament he coveted most in 2024.
In 2023, the year of his induction to the Poker Hall of Fame, Brian Rast joined Mizrachi as the only three-time champion at that time.
And in 2021 and 2022, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates became the first player to ever win the event in back-to-back years.
Multi-time champions:
- Michael Mizrachi (2010, 2012, 2018, 2025)
- Brian Rast (2011, 2016, 2023)
- Dan Cates (2021, 2022)
That trio of Mizrachi, Rast, and Cates are the only players to have won the event more than once, but there are plenty of worthy champions from before the pandemic that could join that list, including Phil Hui, Mike Gorodinsky, John Hennigan, and David Bach. Or it could be one of two British specialists who regularly travel to Las Vegas specifically for this event: Matt Ashton or Elior Sion.
How big will the 2026 edition be?
- Biggest field: 2007 & 2008 – 148 entries (50K H.O.R.S.E. format)
- Smallest field: 2021 – 63 entries (first WSOP after pandemic)
With a $50K price point and the toughest field of the summer to get through, only the truly elite take up the challenge of the PPC regularly. As such, this isn’t an event that sees a progressive growth in field size, swinging around the 100-entry mark generally.
Last year’s total of 107 was second only to 2022’s 112 since the pandemic, but still lags behind the early days of the event when it was played as a H.O.R.S.E. format.
2006 (143 entries), 2007 (148 entries), and 2008 (148 entries) saw the three largest fields in the event’s history and haven’t come within 16 entries of setting a new mark since.
What to watch for
Can Mizrachi win a fifth? He’s already the most successful player in the history of the PPC, so why not? If you had to pick a favorite in this uber-talented field, you could do a lot worse than Mizrachi
Will Hellmuth be back in time to play? The one event that’s eluded Hellmuth in his illustrious WSOP career is the PPC, coming closest in 2011 when he lost heads-up to Rast in his first triumph. Proficient in all the games, Hellmuth will always be a contender in the PPC, but could his recent bout with COVID prevent him from making a run at it this year?
Can 'Etay' make another run? Aside from Mizrachi’s win, the biggest story of the 2025 edition was ‘Etay’. Esther Taylor’s run to third place, the deepest that a woman had ever gone in the tournament, was a true showcase of her skills that she’s shown for years in the mixed games at the WSOP. A similar run in 2026 wouldn't be a surprise.
Will a POY contender win? In the 20-year history of the event, only 13 players can say they’ve earned the title of Poker Players champion. There are a ton of big names that have never won it, and with some of the biggest names that we expect to see in the field, either red-hot or heating up, names like Foxen, Kihara, Brewer, Deeb, and more could potentially lay claim to the title.
The first of the five days of action from the most prestigious mixed game tournament of the year begins on Sunday and PokerOrg will be keeping you on top of all the big stories until the latest champion claims the bracelet and lifts the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
Additional photos courtesy of PokerGO
